1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a head slider including a so-called microactuator and incorporated in a magnetic storage device such as a hard disk drive (HDD), for example. In particular, the invention relates to a head slider allowing a head element to displace within a slider body by a fine amplitude.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Japanese Patent Application Publication 11-259840 discloses a head slider comprising a slider body and a support member incorporated in the slider body so as to support a read/write head element, for example. A microactuator is mounted on the slider body. The microactuator serves to realize a fine displacement of the support member in the head slider. This fine displacement allows the read/write head element to finely follow a recording track on a recording medium.
The head slider is in general made based on a process of layering. The slider body and the support member are deposited on a wafer, for example. In this case, a so-called medium-opposed surface of the slider body and the support member is inevitably defined along the upper surface of the wafer. Specifically, a non-magnetic layer for a read or write gap of the read/write head element should be formed on the support member so as to extend in a vertical direction perpendicular to the upper surface of the wafer. It is difficult to reduce the thickness of the non-magnetic layer in a process of depositing the support member on the upper surface of the wafer.